JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Democrats' downward spiral seems to continue as the party is in disarray. Their message... oh wait, they have none.
Some are wondering out loud: “Are the Dems broken beyond repair?”
Well, look at history and you’ll find out that politics is cyclical.
Time to convene the class? OK, here we go. Turn back the clock to the mid-90s. The Republican Party was not unlike the current-day GOP. They wandered as the walking wounded in a meandering political circle. Ideas? They didn’t have any.
Fast forward four years and George W. Bush won the White House and Congress. Of course, he had a little help from the Supreme Court.
Turn back the hands of time even further to 1991, and who was sitting pretty in the White House? None other than George H. W. Bush.
After Desert Storm, he was wildly popular. Everyone said he was unbeatable. But a year and a half later, uh-oh that political landscape underwent another major transformation.
“It’s the economy stupid,” and who came out on top? A Dem named Bill Clinton.
You get the point here. Politics are cyclical and change as fast as fashion trends. What’s old becomes new again (kinda sorta)!
Now, I don’t hold much stock in polls, but let’s look at the polling because it’s really the only gauge we’ve got.
The Democratic party’s favorability rating among Americans is at a record low, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. And that’s because of views from its own supporters.
Many in the party are saying publicly that their leaders should do more to stand up to President Donald Trump. Democrats and Democratic-aligned independents say that Democrats should mainly work to stop the Republican agenda, rather than working with the GOP majority to get some Democratic ideas into legislation.
And face it, there is just despair among the Senate Democrats after losing the shutdown fight. They are desperately trying to regroup.
For the first time since the start of Trump’s second administration, they had real leverage to fight the president. The GOP needed Democratic votes to overcome a filibuster.
But Sen. Chuck Schumer folded, refusing to put up those votes to avert a shutdown. He had his reasons, saying it was best for the American people and that he was putting people before party.
Maybe so, but that gamble is now raising questions as to how the Democrats will handle the next shutdown deadline. It’s right around the corner in September. How can they avoid the same result?
What Schumer’s chess game did was expose a big-time chasm in the party. It left Schumer open to major criticism. The split between the Senate minority leader and his counterpart in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, literally exploded in public.
One Democratic strategist put it this way: “To beat Trump, we need clarity of purpose, discipline and coordination. It’s clear none of that exists right now.”
This all comes at a time when Trump hands the opposing party a “gimme.” The economy is tanking. The tariffs will have a devastating impact. What are the courts doing? They are checking Trump’s authority.
And don’t think the American public isn’t noticing. Those polls I mentioned earlier show the man from Mar-a-Lago is losing ground and the public’s faith, just like the Dems.
He’s underwater on everything, according to a new Quinnipiac poll that found 53% of voters disapprove of his second-term performance. More specifically: his overall approval fell to 42% from 45% last month while his disapproval rose to 53% from 49%.
People are off-kilter. Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at the progressive Groundwork Collaborative, put it this way: “Working families are longing for stability as their grocery bills and rent payments continue to climb, but Trump’s chaotic approach to the economy has them feeling more uncertain than ever.”
What are they unhappy about? Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said: “A noticeable uptick of discontent can be seen over President Trump’s handling of a range of issues: from Ukraine to the economy to the federal workforce.”
Get the gist of all of this? Republicans are unhappy! Democrats are unhappy! It’s time to quit settling for the status quo.
Can you believe what you hear coming out of the White House and Elon Musk and the GOP about the change they tell you they are bringing about? It’s cloaked in lies -- documented lies.
Can you believe what the Dems tell you? Well, to start they would need to have a message and clear-cut leadership. Apparently, they don’t have either.
America needs to find a new direction and new solid leadership grounded in principle!
That’s what’s on the table for discussion when political analyst Daniel Cronrath joins me on this week’s Politics and Power. Watch at 7 p.m. or 9 p.m. Tuesday on News4JAX+ or catch it on demand anytime on News4JAX+, News4JAX.com and our YouTube channel.